Favorite Fishing Quotes

[Radtexan]

Just of few of my favorites....Feel free to add your own

Scholars have long known that fishing eventually turns men into philosophers. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to buy decent tackle on a philosopher’s salary. –Patrick F. McManus

If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there’d be a shortage of fishing poles. –Doug Larson

The only reason I ever played golf in the first place was so I could afford to hunt and fish. –Sam Snead

The best fisherman I know try not to make the same mistakes over and over again; instead they strive to make new and interesting mistakes and to remember what they learned from them. –John Gierach

There’s a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot. –Steven Wright

 

[LedHed]

All great ones -"fine line" is tops!

 

[Radtexan]

There is no greater fan of fly fishing than the worm. –Patrick F. McManus

It has always been my private conviction that any man who pits his intelligence against a fish and loses has it coming. –John Steinbeck

The two best times to fish is when it’s rainin’ and when it ain’t. –Patrick F. McManus

 

[Fatman]

From a buddy at one of my fly tying sites, "nice cast moron....you knew the tree was there."

Fussing over a fly to get lifelike effects or because you want some kind of perfect example of the tier's art has never appealed to me - Harry Darbee Harry for anyone who doesn't know of him was the man credited with giving eggs to people to grow birds for hackle!!!

My favorite!!!! "Just Fishing! All life is that to some extent. If we are not fishing for one thing it is another. But angling! That's just a bit different. In it we find peace and contentment and much with which to occupy our minds. May the balance of our fishing days be blessed with congenial comrades and "tight lines." Ray Bergman"

 

[quivira kid]

I like hearing my buddies sing "O Christmas Tree" when they drop their flasher transducer down a hole in the ice... cause that means we found some fish!

A current favorite is in my signature line...

 

[Pup]

I still laugh at the Steven Wright quote. It's timeless.

My favorite for days of weighty lines propelling a diminutive lure...

If fishing is a religion, fly fishing is high church - Tom Brokaw

 

[AndyLane]

I was visiting with an elderly gentleman at the flyshop one time. He said to me " Just like religion fishing is a big part of me. Them waters are my church and sitting in my boat is like sitting in my favorite pew. If you ask my wife she'll tell ya I Pray Alot."

 

[Fatman]

I like that one Andy!!!!!!!!LOL

 

[hookup]

Tips for Fishing and Life

• On high-competition smallie rivers, he who castest the mostest, usually catches the mostest. Keep yer danged lure in the river! Converse: If you don’t want to catch dinks, don’t throw to dink water.
• There is no magic lure … just magic moments … so never be ashamed to switch to what your partner is slayin’ ‘em on that day. And always be willing to share your killer baits with your partner. But consider fishing with someone else if he constantly bums baits he knows he should have brought based on previous trips.
• If you ain’t eddy-turnin’ below every drop to fish the hole with the roar of the rapids in yer ears, buy a jetboat and go fish something flat, you just ain’t a floatfisherman.
• Fishing with people you love is only about a billion times more important than catching fish in front of people you love.
• Losing a big smallie shouldn’t break your heart; it should thrill it … once you learn the truism that when the smallie wins so do you, you’ll really understand why it is a better gamefish than a largemouth.
• If you haven’t camped on an island in the middle of a smallie river, you haven’t encountered the river in all its grandeur. Do a genuine overnight float this year.
• If is true that watching a kid catch an 11-inch smallie is infinitely more enjoyable than catching a 15-inch smallie yourself, so if you wanna have fun, take a kid fishing.
• Bass-lip thumb is a wonderful and painless ailment that will go away tomorrow; catch some fish, even if they ain’t bigguns.
• A broken rod or frozen reel is not the end of the world. Either one without a backup in the boat is.
• If throwing cigarette butts into the river doesn’t make you feel guilty, it should. So carry an empty film canister as your personal ashtray. But never tell the on-smokers who appreciate you doing so that it’s mainly to keep yourself from feeling bad.
• The classic “shore lunch” is the single greatest waster of fishing time ever devised. Gobble your sandwich and get back to fishin’ … better yet, cast between bites.
• The current is your FRIEND. Fight not with your friend; rather, juxtapose strengths to achieve harmony.
• Wind is your ENEMY, no matter where it’s coming from. Curse it. Loud. Often.
• The River Gods are impartial yet capricious. Know ye that one day they will screw with ye, and the next shine upon thee. Accept this, and just fish.
• Give a man a fish and he’ll burn dinner. Teach a man to fish and he’ll flip your canoe – after forgetting to bring sandwiches.
• Adversity becomes adventure upon fond remembrance.
• Weather only counts when you’re in it … and with the right attitude, not even then.
• Don’t stop my boat to take time and smell the roses … but if you don’t retrieve blindly in order to watch the deer, you need to get your mind right.
• Speaking of that, there are lots of critters to enjoy while on the river. Maybe that’s why they call it a “fish hook” rather than a “critter hook”.
• God won’t subtract from your total the number of days spent on the river … but he’ll punish you for every single hour spent drinking the night before!

 

[Hawnjigs]

Very inspirational and even exhilirating stuff guys.

Alls I got is the bumper sticker my son sent me awhile back:
"Women love me, fish fear me"

Yah, I know...

 

[jiggerjohn]

Had many great quotes from an oldtimer, the late Earl Cartwright of Akron,Ohio, who often put forth many gems during boat times together from his downhome philosophy. But my favorite, upon either of us failing to set a hook : " Ya can't fry a strike!"

 

[Squeakyboatcaptain]

From my Dad....." You aint holdin your mouth right boy! "

 

[AtticaFish]

Not a great quote but a good connection...... My own Dad used to tell me frequently when i was younger to 'Cross their eyes' when you set the hook. He sets the hook hard most every time. Years later when i watched my Grandfather fish side-by-side with my Dad and actually paid attention around me instead of only on the fish - i understood where my Dad got the saying. My Grandpa would set the hook from 5:00 to 12:00 on EVERY fish.

 

[redman]

My mentor had two good ones. The first was " It ok to be stupid just don't work at it.". The second was "you look but don't see and hear but don't listen ". Most of us are very guilty of the second I hope none of us are guilty of the first.

Redman

 

[New River Rat]

My grand daddy passed in 1964, but I still hear him saying, "The best time to go fishing is when it's raining. Or when it ain't."

 

[papaperch]

My all time favorite uttered by my cousin one extremely rainy day in a boat. His slouch hat looked like a downspout on a house.

He looked at me and said. " you know I have been fishin on some real fine days. But this sure ain't one of them ".

Since we were catching fish both of us knew we weren't leaving anytime soon.

A close second was a phrase uttered by a college professor ( history ) that I used to fish with. One April day we started with a warm morning but by noon it was snowing so hard. We could barely see one another in a 16 ' boat. The temp had fallen about 20 degrees and we were both shivering like a dog trying to crap a razor blade. He said " I don't know about you but I think I have had about all the fun I can take for one day. " Both of us started laughing so hard it is a wonder we got the boat on the trailer.

 

[Lost Pole]

"90% of the fish are in 10% of the water"

 

[stlatem]

"90% of the fish are in 10% of the water"

Al Lindner said they are where they are when they are there.

 

[hookup]

“The Lord made my office and it's beautiful.”

“Once a carp is on a fly rod, it's like having hooked a tugboat.”

“Can't be eating bass. It's like eating a co-worker.”

“Compared to a dog, a blue cat is a pit bull and a flathead is a poodle.”

“There is nothing that smells worse than a little drop of spoonbill blood.”
“There ain't never two days alike on the Illinois River.” - Striper fishing guide Delmer Shoults of Vian

“Anyone can catch one with bait.” - Lake Texoma striper fisherman John Harris

“Jaws. It's all about the bite.”

“Pound for pound, small mouth bass are the hardest fresh water fighting fish there is.”

“If you got anything you are worried about, you are not going to be worried about it while you are fishing.”

“One thing you don't do with a flathead, you don't get in a hurry.”

“I live for fishing. That's what keeps me coming back every day.”

“Fishing is better than any drug you will ever do. ”

 

[Jay Wirth]

I found this as a signature on a fishing forum, I liked it so much I had a print done for my office wall.

From The Royal Wulff Murders by: Keith McCaffery
"The thing about fishing
is that it gives a man
Hope. Each cast builds a
little hope and if he can
lose himself in that hope,
then the worries and the
heartache fade into the
background. The wind
inside him dies down for a
while."